How to grease leaf springs?

[Henry's Lady's Man]

http://http://www.ebay.com/itm/FORD-MODEL-A-TOOL-Leaf-Spring-Lubricator-Charles-Manzel-No-Reserve-/371314663252
Last try, folks!

 

[updraught]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FORD-MODEL-A-TOOL-Leaf-Spring-Lubricator-Charles-Manzel-No-Reserve-/371314663252?nma=true&si=mS41Tstn6uCNYcqr6jT9ITthoo4%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557


One of these with some PTFE (Teflon) spray fairly often might work.

 

[Y-Blockhead]

Henry's Lady's Man, go to "Advanced", then to bottom of page to "Manage Attachments" to post your pictures.

You can't paste directly from iPhoto.

Also I fixed your link;
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FORD-MODEL-...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

[nick c]

Recently I removed the front axle and spring, disassembled everything and sand blasted the leaves individually to remove rust then I took a small grinder and tapered the underside of each leaf. Then I sprayed a lite coat of rustoleum black lacquer. I tried using a small amount of slip plate but after 7 days it was still oozing out, so I took the spring apart and used a small amount of grease.
carry on nick c

 

[Henry's Lady's Man]

Y-Blockhead, Thanks for the tip.

This tool is the REALLY OLD WAY to grease the springs. If I never use this, I will still have a collectable item.

 

[Y-Blockhead]

Installed a set of Spring Covers today. I soaked the felts with some 'Low Mileage' 600w gear oil that I had drained from my trans and saved. Easy job and looks real nice.

 

[Diastole]

The Ford Model "A" Instruction Book for the 1930 year on page 35 says:

Care of Springs
The springs should be lubricated occasionally with oil or graphite. This will restore the original flexibility of the springs and improve the riding quality of the care.

Victor Paige's book echoes this and advocates using spring covers with the felt pads saturated with lubricant.

Diastole

 

[Diastole]

here is the pic from the instruction book

 

[nkaminar]

I have the exact same tool that Henry's Lady's Man uses. I used it to grease the front springs in my Fordor about a week ago and it made quite a bit of difference. The springs actually moved when jumping up and down on the bumper. This was in preparation to adding modern shocks in the front. The car handles a lot better now. I just used some greasy grease that I used to grease the rest of the car. I know this will become a maintenance thing. I jacked up the car under the frame rails to help separate the leaves.

 

[Tom Endy]

Here is how we did it to the rear spring on my grandsons 1930 Tudor.

https://www.santaanitaas.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Spring-restoration-PDF.pdf

Tom Endy

 

[Pete]

Grease is not a good long term lube for leaf springs, even if the spring has a cover or is wrapped.
When grease gets old it dries out and loses most of it's lube properties.
It is almost impossible to apply effectively to an in service spring. It also attracts airborne dirt which is very abrasive.

Many people use Slip Plate for spring lube. It is a spray type dry lube that the base lube ingredient is graphite.
While graphite is good, there is something that is far better that coats to the molecular level.
It is Molykote. It combines molybdenemdisulfide AND graphite. It comes in a spray can and can be applied by brush also by just spraying on a brush and applying to such as model A springs. It has excellent penetrating qualities so readily flows between spring leaves if applied heavily to the sides of a spring. If you do not care about overspray, you can just spray it on very heavily and let it soak in.

And, no, I do not have stock in Dupont. I just use the stuff on parts we manufacture because it is good.

 

[Ruth]

I did a Google search and there appears to be several Dupont Molykote products.

 

[ddelproop]

Same here. Not only do the spring covers keep the springs lubricated but also very clean

 

[katy]

They used to make a tool for spreading spring leaves.